


Canis Minor

by tehJai



Series: About A Dog [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Adopting a Puppy, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Teacher-Student Relationship, astrology lessons, but not THAT kind of Teacher-Student relationship, cameos from my friends' OCs, they'll be friends eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24108460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tehJai/pseuds/tehJai
Summary: Tiona gets left at home while Keltgeim takes Urianger on a field exercise and nobody's happy about it until the end, when a surprise returns along with them.
Relationships: Urianger Augurelt/Warrior of Light
Series: About A Dog [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883167
Comments: 10
Kudos: 16





	Canis Minor

Tiona was thumbing through the day’s issue of the _Mythril Eye_ , curled up on the couches adjacent to the basement kitchen of the shared house in Ul’dah, brows knit, seemingly highly annoyed with whatever she was reading about the market value of gemstones rising _again_ due to some earthquake that had happened a moon or so past, followed by the beastkin moving in to loot the stores. Every so often she’d sit up and run her fingers along the script, sounding out a word, making mental note of its spelling, before flopping back against the cushions with a dramatic sigh.

She didn’t really give a _whit_ about the gemstones; not really, but she needed _something_ to occupy her time while her (mate? boyfriend? Better half? On-call healer? The _length_ of their relationship to date was an unknown quantity due to time dilation between the Source and the First; labels and names seemed trite by comparison) partner and the woman he’d seen in those odd post-coital dreams back in Il Mheg went...somewhere.

It was a trial of some kind; some sort of low-stakes but still potentially injurious adventure and Keltgeim - the dream woman: a tall, imperious, arrogant, _gorgeous_ roegadyn who also happened to be a very brilliant but not very orthodox astrologian - had ushered Urianger out the front door, waved goodbye to Tiona and the others assembled near the kitchen and…left for the day.

“I’m surprised,” the _other_ tall, imperious, arrogant, _gorgeous_ roegadyn woman who lived in the house (Tiona had recently moved in and there were a _lot_ of people who came and went from this place, but she was fairly certain this was Keltgeim’s cousin, Kryst) had said as soon as the door was shut, “that she didn’t ask you to go along. You usually take point on these sorts of things, aye?”

Tiona had been left flat-footed in front of the kitchen sink, her eyes blinking owlishly above her nose that twitched _rapidly_. Her leporine ears had swivelled to listen as Keltgeim and Urianger had gone up the stairs and when the two of them were gone, the rava nodded, took a deep breath, pursed her lips, knitted her brows, and _stood_ there, tapping her left foot rapidly against the basement floor.

The noise, and the angry viera tapping her foot in the middle of the kitchen and obliquely blocking off access to the icebox, caught the attention of _some_ of the residents of the house.

“Nah. Can’t have the girlfriend take point. She’d protect him.” Starling was a tiny miqo’te and had been able to squeeze past Tiona to peer into the icebox, leaning in all the way and seeming to disappear before manifesting again with a bottle of juice in-hand. “Needs to be a teachable moment.” She’d taken a seat at the kitchen table, watching everyone else with a curious eye.

Tiona had let out an aggravated sound, and had stomped off away from the icebox to pout conspicuously and lay down on the couch. Someone _else_ – Synnove, the kind hyur woman whose summons went _everywhere_ with her – had tossed the daily newspaper such that it landed unceremoniously in the rava’s face.

“Just read while you wait.”

And so she had, deliberately reading the article about the gemstones, sounding out the words she didn’t know by heart yet, but when it was finished, she flipped the paper down and let out another growl. “This isn’t working.”

Interestingly, none of those assembled seemed inclined to leave Tiona alone in her moment of – was she bored? Jealous? That _horrible_ stereotype of a partner who can’t bear to be away from the other party for more than an hour? (She hoped not; that struck her as very odd.) Still, the company was nice and at least she didn’t have to pace and stomp all alone.

“She won’t let him _die_ ,” Synnove said, sitting down in the nearby armchair with her lunch, feeding a grape to the blueish-coloured carbuncle draped around her shoulders. “if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I’m not –” She was cut off as the yellow-coloured carbuncle who was _extremely large_ managed to squirm his way atop the couch and atop Tiona herself, settling down on the rava’s legs and looking very pleased with itself. The thing started to _rumble_ and her voice came out like she was talking into a magitek air exchanger. “– worried.”

Kryst was elbow-deep in the icebox at this point and her booming laugh echoed across the whole room. “Yes you are. Look, Kelt can be a hardass sometimes but she’s not the sort of person who’s gonna shove your beau down a ravine and come home sayin’ there was some kinda accident.” 

Tiona, still being rumbled into the cushions by the self-assured large carbuncle, let out a sigh – though it did come out more like staccato breathing. “I guess not,” she said.

–

Some hours later, Keltgeim and Urianger returned from wherever-they’d-been, with no visible signs of any misadventure, other than they were both _very_ dusty and Keltgeim was wielding a spear whose tip still had dried blood on it and Urianger was carrying a small sack that was _wriggling_.

It was at the _exact_ moment the two of them came down the stairs that Kryst, Starling, and Synnove each made themselves wholly scarce, the large yellow carbuncle left its post, ambling past the two returning and Tiona rolled her eyes, her ears following their footsteps.

The fact that the three of them were huddled at the top of the stairs was not lost on her, and Tiona stood up and attempted – a tall order as Keltgeim had a full fulm on her and she was only _just_ shorter than Urianger – to loom over the pair.

“So,” she said, looking across and up at them in lieu of the imperious downward gaze she _wanted_ to make, “what’d I miss?” 

Keltgeim offered a shrug, clearly unbothered by Tiona’s attempts at intimidation, and turned to lean her spear against the wall. “Well, he kept me alive even when I was actually tryin’ t’be an idiot, so I guess he’s got _some_ measure of talent even if he’s approachin’ astrology all wrong.”

A rather severe look of annoyance was upon Urianger’s face as the roegadyn spoke, not unlike the one Tiona herself had worn when he left; his silvery brows knit together and a deep frown on his lips. “I still maintain that my techniques cannot be considered _entirely_ incorrect if thou considerest that thou _didst not die_ –”

“Yer easily about two seconds outta sync, ain’t usin’ any shieldin’ spells, and I don’t think yer even aware of what _Gravity_ is.” 

There was snickering from upstairs. Keltgeim wandered over into the kitchen, grabbed a drink from the icebox, and then headed for the conference room in the rear of the basement – apparently the conversation was over.

“...so,” Tiona said, rocking back and forth on her heels, “what’s in the bag?”

“Ah.” For whatever reason, the look of annoyance vanished from the elezen’s face, and his cheeks grew a little red. “Whilst doing the – _exercise_ – with Lady Keltgeim, we happened upon…” His fingers moved to loosen the tie of the bag, but whatever was in there managed to get there first: a tiny black snout emerged, and then a fluffy black-and-white head, and then two triangular ears –

The rava squinted. “Urianger,” she said slowly, “is that a _puppy_?” 

“Indeed. We found him during the exercise. I do recall thy sentiment that thou wouldst like to own one, so –”

She clearly wasn’t listening; she’d scooped up the little thing from his arms, bringing its face to hers and both of them sniffed at each other, a black nose and a brown nose twitching in time. Urianger was certain that if Tiona’s tail _could_ wag, it would probably be doing so even faster than the little puppy’s.

“Oh, he’s _adorable_. Are you _certain_ we’re going to keep him?” The puppy whined, and wriggled in Tiona’s arms. She set him on the ground and he immediately trotted over to Urianger’s feet and sat. 

He peered down at the tiny thing, then back up at the excited joy in Tiona’s face, and allowed himself a smile.

“I do believe that decision hath been made _for_ us.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes in-game events give you the inspiration for something really wholesome based on a joke you made like three months ago. I was levelling DRG on Keltgeim via Trusts and Urianger is the superior trusts healer for me and the damn dog dropped and someone already gave it to Keltgeim.
> 
> So here we are.
> 
> Special thanks to Draya as well as the players of Kryst and Starling who let me use their OCs for cameos.


End file.
